11 March 2007

Conference showcase for Genesys research


Two weeks after the distributor conference the team flew out to Gran Canaria for the IDA Conference. Genesys were co-sponsors of the Sunday afternoon golf tournament and were ably represented by Richard Martin from Genesys Spain. Congratulations to Alberto Gomez winner of the handicap tournament and David Thomas for best scratch score. Genesys had a heavily-visited stand where we met up with old friends and made many new ones including the founder members of the Caribbean Desalination Association Manuel Pereira and Linda Dudley pictured (centre). Special note to Erroll Grimes and Richard Gordon for their perpetual good humour.

The 19th IDA World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse ran from the 21 to 26 October and was attended by 1,300 delegates and visitors who listened to more than 200 technical papers and were thoroughly entertained at a masquerade party and a traditional Canarian festival with stilt dancing and a firework display. There was a trip to a Wild West town complete with a shootout between cowboys and Indians and a superb barbecue supper.
The focus of Genesys attention was on two papers delivered by Steve Chesters and Silvia Gallego.

Steve's paper was titled Theoretical and Practical Experience of Calcium Phosphate Inhibition in RO waters (download here).

In the paper, he explored the growth in Waste Water RO plant and explained the chemistry of calcium phosphate scale formation when highly-loaded phosphate feed water is used as a feed supply to RO plant. In the process of developing a new antiscalant product Genesys PHO the experience of dentists who are trying to make a calcium phosphate cement for teeth repair was discovered and used. Finally Steve showed the results from three field trials and two operational plant to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new Genesys PHO antiscalant. Renowned Professor David Hasson, from Technion University, was co-chairing the session on membrane fouling with Dr Linda Dudley and Professor Kerabelas. Professor Hasson said the calcium phosphate paper was the best he had seen at the conference.
Silvia Gallego presented a paper on Simple Laboratory Techniques to Improve the Operation of RO pre-treatment systems (download here).

In the paper Silvia demonstrated how the use of membrane autopsy techniques on elements of the pre-treatment system like filter media can be a valuable tool to improve the efficiency of the pre-treatment plant. The limitations of using just the Silt Density Index (SDI) as a measure of pre-treatment performance was discussed. The additional value of the use of the particle counter to establish the number and size of particles in the feed water was explained along with how the equipment works. A number of case studies were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of these new techniques to improve removal of suspended matter from the RO feed water. Genesys have a number of new papers being worked on for next year and if any readers are interested in discussing potential collaboration they should contact schesters@genesysro.com The IDA conference was capped off with a gala dinner which included an orchestra and fantastic fireworks display. A big thank you must go to Pat Burke Secretary General of the International Desalination Association for all her hard work in organising such a large conference.

As Technical Chairs of the conference Genesys Sales Director Ursula Annunziata and Lisa Henthorne (now president of the IDA) were responsible for setting up this aspect of the conference. With more than 200 technical papers being presented Ursula and Lisa's organisational skills were required to ensure smooth operation throughout the conference. In recognition of their achievement the IDA board presented both with a Presidential Award for "Outstanding performance as co-chair of the scientific programme".




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